T.J. Cloutier was born in Albany, California October 13th, 1939. Prior to a professional poker career, T.J made a run at becoming a professional football player while attending UC Berkeley on a full scholarship and even made a Rose Bowl appearance. Financial hardship kept him from completing college, and T.J was drafted into the Army for service in Vietnam. T.J made a second attempt at igniting his football career while playing semi-professionally for the Canadian Football League until an injury cut his career short.
T.J. Cloutier discovered poker while working on an oil rig in Texas, eventually quitting his oil rig job when he realized he was making more money playing poker on his days off than he was working for the oil rigs!
A member of the Poker Hall Of Fame, T.J is considered one of the best tournament players of all time by his peers. T.J. has made several runs at winning the World Series Of Poker Main Event with two runner up finishes (1985,2000). In his other two final table appearances in the Main Event - T.J finished in the top five.
Holding six WSOP bracelets, T.J is a true force to be reckoned with at any poker table and any game variation and the only player to win a bracelet in all types of Omaha. T.J’s total tournament winnings at the time of this writing are $9,300,000 - and he is second only to Phil Hellmuth for final table appearances at the WSOP.
World Series Of Poker Bracelets
1987 $1,000 OMaha HI - $72,000
1994 $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Low Split - $135,000
1994 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - $90,500
2004 $1,500 Seven Card Razz - $90,500
2005 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em - $657,100
While T.J. is yet to claim a World Poker Tour championship, he did come close by finishing in third place at the 2003 Legends Of Poker.
T.J has dabbled in some other forms of marketing himself, including a popular PC game “World Class Poker” that he financed and created. He is also a noted author, writing books with Tom McEvoy .
Those books are: Championship Tournament Practice Hands, Championship Hold’em, Champioinship Omaha, Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold’em, and his most recent book How To Win The Championship - Hold’em Strategies For The Final Table which focuses on late game strategy. T.J also writes a featured article for the ever popular Card Player magazine.
T.J. still resides in California and his happily married to his second wife, Joy. He still has hopes of winning both a WPT championship and the WSOP Main Event.